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The West Wing, Season 3, Episode 15 (Patreon)

Published:
2023-11-07 02:51:05
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Hartsfield's Landing

Files

Previews only

The West Wing, Season 3, Episode 15

Hartsfield's Landing

Comments

Laura Room

The podcast, The West Wing Weekly, handled the topic about the possible sexism in the prior episode well. No spoilers, in that one, and if you feel like listening they bring in some experts on the topic.

Anuraag Bagepalli

Idk If you’ve seen it on HBO Max, but once you’ve finished the whole series you HAVE to watch the West Wing Special Episode: When We Vote! It’s a fantastic episode they made to encourage confidence in mail-in voting during the 2020 election and have the old cast come together to stage a retelling of this episode.

Max F.

I get goosebumps every time he says "and I still know where the peices are on David Wheaton's board."

Jeff

This is one of my favorite episodes, for all the reasons you touched on. I remember this whole "plain folk" vs "the educated elite" debate going back to George H.W. Bush disparaging Mike Dukakis for being too educated, and everyone disparaging Bill Clinton for being a Rhodes Scholar. This whole misguided populist idea that smart people can't understand the common man has continued on, as you said, to this bizarre alternate reality of today. Regarding Sorkin's other projects, you probably already know that he followed up "The West Wing" with "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," which began with a strong pilot episode and then went downhill from there. I wouldn't say it was bad, just disappointing and uninteresting, with Sorkin being too far out of his wheelhouse. On the other hand, I think "The Newsroom" would be worth your time (as I've mentioned before), though it's nowhere near the brilliance of TWW. And Joe, because I regularly watch your reactions to several shows, I feel like your cold has taken on an episodic progression that's gotten me way too invested. I hope, for your sake, that it's reaching its inevitable conclusion.

Taylor

One of my favorite things about this is that there actually are a couple of towns in New Hampshire that have votes at 12 AM that they based this off of. Hart’s Location started doing it in the 40s but stopped in the 60s. Dixville Notch started doing it in the 60s and have continued to do it to this day. The do it for both the primary and general elections.

Roland

I love Bartlet trolling Sam and Toby with the complete-BS "Fibonacci Opening" etc. There's a good thread on it here, explained by people that actually know the game. https://www.reddit.com/r/thewestwing/comments/vuhpod/the_chess_scenes_in_the_episode_hartsfields/ In terms of memory skills, blindfold chess is pretty common at high levels, as is the ability to remember patterns from previous games and artificial practice puzzles, etc. There's a hilarious short (3 min) video of English Grandmaster David Howell testing Magnus Carlsen's memory. You don't need to know anything about chess to be impressed (and be laughing). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqKpd61kVBs

Balazs Foldes

It's such a delicate little masterpiece of an episode, love it. So many celver plotlines, all intertwined, and letting you teach many things. The CJ-Charlie war just SEEMS like a random, fun plot. But it really is, not: it's a perfect example of how conflicts can escalate and become full-scale war, if no one de-escalates the situation. Someone has to go in and let the other guy win something and walk away - let them save some face. Just raising the stakes forever and playing chicken is just not gonna win you anything, unless you let the other guy have a way to get out without appearing and feeling to have won something. As you said, the Dona-Josh story is really just about realising: there are things you don't want to play with. Like, free vote, at the end of the way, is a beautiful and precious thing. Even though campaigning, by defnition, is about playing with this right of the people and trying to trick them. Kinda. I also think you are right about the Toby-Bartlet argument. Appearing smart and qualified can be, should be a good thing. I can imagine, however, that it runs the risk of appearing superior, arrogant; you can appear smart-ass, not smart. PR is tricky business.

Luca Siracusa (Bob)

This episode is a masterclass. The double chess-game, the one Bartlet is in control (Sam) and the one he just wants to play forever because he doesn't want to either win or lose, but needs to play (Toby) Toby says those words Bartlet needed "Do not act like it. Do not act like it. Do not act like it". Many, many times Bartlet tries to be what he actually already is and this puts him in a weird situation. He wants to be a good president and tries to act like that, when he already is a great one and forgets about it. He fears Ritchie more than anything because he forgets how powerful he is. Acting like something made him forget that under all of that he already have all those incredible abilities and powerful moves, yet he diminishes himself trying to act. I don't know if it makes sense, but it's such a subtle way to design his character. Jed needed to hear that from Toby and he heard it, he is the powerful leader that everyone needs and the brilliant mind everyone should admire He needs to beat Ritchie, he HAS to beat Ritchie because he's better. Because Ritchie is just plain worse and he cannot lose. He is so far superior to Ritchie he can't lose. THAT'S why it's one of the most difficult moments in his career, because he has only one path and nothing to gain

Surya Gundavarapu

Love the idea of you enjoying my favorite TV shows. I understand you are not able to show any audio or video on Patreon but is it possible for you to show the episode timer? I feel it is very easy to go out of sync managing two progress bars if you want to re-watch both your reactions to a particular key moment etc., Thanks..

Joy M

One of you mentioned (in an earlier post) going to see Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird play in NY. I saw it in Denver with Richard Thomas who plays agent Gadd on The Americans. I recall during the primaries a news report on cable tv asking if Obama was black enough for black voters because he was biracial and had a white mother. The line was “Will black voters question his blackness?” As if Black voters didn’t vote on issues.

Daywalker

Okay, I understand why you don't wanna rush through your West Wing experience, but how about this - if there is a two parter with two episodes that original aired back-to-back on the same night, that could be reason enough to do a two-parter reaction, right?

Weird Magic
>>121659426

Love this idea - but there is only 1 time that happens in the rest of the Series - Season 4 episodes 1 & 2 were both on 9/25/02...none of the rest of them have the same air date on IMDB.

Skinny_Obelix

The thing that scares me about US politics, is that someone like Trump has the ability to get elected, I don't want to think about the wolf in sheep clothes with a similar ideology, but who actually is competent and intelligent... I also would like to suggest the documentary Fog of War, with Robert McNamara

Weird Magic

Last time I mentioned the Sorkin writing technique of "I need a character to tell the audience some background info" and how a lot of the time it is the male character basically mansplaining things to the female character. This was a case where he did the opposite - C.J. did the mansplaining about Hartsfield Landing to the press corp. Just wanted to be fair in pointing out when it doesn't happen :) Originally airing on February 27, 2002, 'Hartsfield's Landing' is Episode 15 of Season 3 of The West Wing. It is the 59th episode overall and has an IMDB rating of 8.5, placing it as the #3 ranked episode of this season and #22 out of all the episodes shown so far.

Yannick, from Montréal

You loved this episode? Then give yourself a little treat, and watch the HBO special: A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote. I'm from Canada, we don't have Max, and it's been removed from our HBO provider (Crave) so I can't send you the link. But it's a 2020 re-enactment of this episode, with the same cast (not a REAL spoiler) except for John Spencer that passed away in 2005, role reprised very nicely by Sterling K. Brown. Really worth the watch!

Devon Cooper

Great reaction guys!!! This is always a top ten for most West Wingers! And everyone is right, when you are done with the series you should watch the special When We All Vote on HBO. It is really great 🤩

Sardonica61

This is the second episode in a row that takes happens during a few late-night hours, mostly with the main cast interacting more intimately. I had never noticed this until this time watching. As for real misogyny and disrespect for women in power, we saw it tonight when Chinese diplomats kept trying to interrupt Nancy. When Toby says that Bartlett's father was an idiot, I did not hear that as a comment on the dad's IQ, but that he did not know to take delight in the son he was given to raise. When Bartlett tells Sam, "You're going to run for President one day. Don't be scared. You can do it." Oh my goodness! You can imagine what it would feel like to be told that. I get teary every time I watch this scene.

JVTrickypants

The prank wars is something based on Sorkin's friend (and eventual cast member) Joshua Malina. When he was on the show he apparently almost got fired for putting vaseline on Allison Janney's phone and it ruined one of her wigs. The entire cast loved him, but apparently that caused a huge problem lol. Bradley Whitford said the problem with Malina's prank responses is he didn't give a proportional response - you put a kick me sticker on his back and he'd fill your car up with shaving cream (which he did to Dule Hill when he got his first nice car after years of driving a beater to work on the show). (He also hid a bunch of computers in a producer's trunk when they were still doing extreme security checks on Warner Brothers' lot after 9/11)

JVTrickypants

Hartsfield's Landing, while fictional, has been described as a homage to real-life, small, early-voting New Hampshire towns such as Hart's Location, Dixville Notch, and Millsfield.

Youtalkingtome
>>121634036

Right, he's never been here before also. He's already on top of the mountain now he needs to prove why he deserves to be there.

Youtalkingtome
>>121687832

Yeah, I took it as he is an idiot but not as far as his intelligence goes more so his emotional intelligence and how he treated his son.